1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a container for dispensing tablets or the like. More specifically, it is directed to a type of dispenser which provides access to one or more tablets at a time in such a manner that they cannot be replaced e.g. by a placebo and thus, the dispensing is a non-reversing procedure.
2. Prior Art Statement
Numerous tablet dispensers have been developed over the years and some involve attachments to bottles or containers of medicine while others involve redesign of the container itself. Thus, in 1972, U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,945 was issued to Harman, Jr. et al for a recording tablet dispenser which involved a rather complex dispensing mechanism but included day counting and a dispenser with a flip type cover and ratchet that rotated the day marking as the tablet was dispensed.
U.S. Pat No. 4,705,182 issued to Newel-Lewis describes a tablet dispensary which is a device that fits over a medicine container and has means for dispensing the contents while showing a time indicator for the next dispensing of the medication. U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,190 shows a dispenser for tablets in a predetermined order which includes a graduated scale showing the days of the week and thus enabling the user to determine whether or not a pill for a particular day has has been taken. The cap has a rotational feature which enables the user to rotate the dispensing orifice from one stack to the next sequentially.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,911,856 and 4,078,661 are directed to medication reminder systems involving pill dispensing from a flat container and include indicia to show the sequence for the user of a particular medication regimen.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,407,962 and 3,612,349 issued to J. B. Ragan and Michael Thomas, respectively, are each directed to stacked pills which are dispensed sequentially and whereby a day of the week indicator is included. In the Ragan patent, a rotating ring moves downwardly for dispensing the tablet and simultaneously marks the day of the week while in the Thomas patent a spring loaded piston advances the pills for dispensing and the scale indicates by viewing to the user as to the day of the week for the next pill.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,423 to Holtsch shows a pill dispensing mechanism which includes indicia for days and dates or other indicia and has a rotational dispensing mechanism which is used for dispensing different types of pills from the same dispensing mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,757 to Rappaport et al describes a pill dispenser with sequential dispensing means and automatic incremental dispensing control. This device is a complex mechanism involving axial rotation and vertical sliding movement of various parts and achieves the objective of controlled incremental dispensing in a very expensive manner.
Notwithstanding the above cited prior art, it is believed taht the present invention is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby. The present invention uniquely permits the user of the present invention container to dispense pills in an irreversible or non-reversing manner and the device is able to provide such a feature with only two components in its most basic form, namely, the main body of the container and a disk actuator.